Practice will let you decide as you start scanning. Try a few of your own photos so you have a basic idea before you attend the shindig. Use the auto scan and see what it does. You have an upscale scanner so output should e great. If photos are small, worn, scratched or torn then I select a higher resolution or increase the size so I can work on it later. I rarely use other scanner settings, relying on my photo editing software to do these things. I recently scanned a 1968 passport black and white photo of my wife at 600% of the original size, cleaned it up and printed it as an 8 x 10 and it came out quite good IMHO. DPI. What do you intend to do with the scans? I ask because a computer reads 72 DPI but if you intend to print then that is useless and will show jaggies so if I intend to print I select 300 DPI. Again, play a little and make your choices.

dcarch, I agree with some of your points if we are talking about the usual "steel" sold in most shops, which is a rough grooved rod. Those so-called steels are in fact meant to "sharpen" meaning to remove metal. They do it terribly. I used my kids' microscope once to examine a kitchen knife edge as I did different things to it. I found out that the grooved rods actually tear the blade's edge into a jagged shape, sort of like a saw. You cannot see this with the naked eye, but you can feel it. Take a knife you don't care much about. It is easier to do this if it is a fairly soft steel, like a Victorinox. Run your finger along the edge, not applying enough pressure to cut yourself, and note how smooth it feels. Then go at it vigorously with a grooved rod type of "steel". Now run your finger along the edge. You will feel a slight roughness. Those are the jaggies torn by the grooved rod. When you first use that knife, it will cut effectively, as the jagged edge works just like a saw. But the jaggies are soon torn off. Again, you can only see that in the microscope. I think I was using 100X. The blade then ceases to cut well. And you reach for the grooved rod again. A smooth rod, which is what I consider an actual steel, does not tear jaggies into the edge, at least none visible at 100X, and not as far as my fingertip can feel. But an edge that feels like it to has recently dulled, can be restored to keen again, with the rather gentle use of the smooth rod. Much gentler than the pressure you exert to grind a new edge using a whetstone. If the smooth rod is not grinding away metal - as the microscope seems to show and as the gentleness of our steeling would suggest - how is it making a seemingly dull edge feel sharp again? That is, I believe, the edge re-alignment that I mentioned. Note that all my experience is with Western knives. Victorinox, Wusthof, Henkels, etc. I have never owned a genuine Japanese knife with the much harder steel that they use. Though I sure hope to, someday. I know it is considered absolutely verboten to use a steel on a Japanese blade. I don't know why, not having personal experience, though I have theories (e.g. ruining the single-bevel geometry of some Japanese blades). I have sharpened a genuine Japanese knife once, for a friend. She asked me to sharpen a whole bunch of knives. She has dozens of knives, all thrown together in a big drawer, the fine ones with the cheap ones, all as dull as can be. Really sad. I used my waterstone on that knife, got it very sharp though I'm sure not nearly as sharp as it could have been, and wrapped it up in paper before replacing it at the very back of the drawer. It took several hours to sharpen a couple dozen of her 40 or 50 knives. I gave her a Chef's Choice after that. Stropping - I don't do it, and didn't study it under the microscope. I'd guess it is simply polishing the edge a bit. After you sharpen a blade on even a very fine whetstone, under the microscope you see a pattern of diagonal furrows on the bevel of the edge, that show how you ground the bevel on the stone. Those furrows continue all the way to the edge itself. So the V-shaped cutting edge has a very slight micro-level serration. If you want to polish out that serration, I would suspect stropping could help do that. But I don't mind the micro-serration. Here is something fun. My son's science class will have an electron microscope for a few months. I have no idea how good it will be, or how a middle school classroom gets loaned such an instrument. The science teacher asked for parent volunteers to be trained on the electron microscope and to then supervise kids. Naturally, I have signed up. He said we could use it on our own too. If it is able to give a useful picture of a knife edge, I'm bringing a whole quiver of knives in different stages of sharpening, steeling, and even stropping.

"Yow! I wonder if it would really attack or it just did that because you were running away." It was an attack. At this time of the year, the ganders are territorial and will harrass. They do challenge people, but if an adult stands his ground and counter- attacks, the goose will usually yield to the superior size and strength. If not, grab the goose by the neck and it soon realizes who is boss. However, a young child fares differently - its a size thing. One time when I was about 6 years old, a tame gander of ours grabbed be by the seat of my pants as I ran for the gate. He was beating his wings and trying to hold me back and then lunging forward to get a better grip nipping my little behind in the process. My mother was no help - she was laughing too hard. I was scared and did not think it funny. The main danger from such an attack is eye injury.

Ok I changed the thing an AS and here is what I got, but I do think I forgot to check the vector too. Anyway I think I may be getting back in the groove. Now I need another tut to do. LOL